Closing summary

We’re closing down this live blog now. Thanks for sticking with us late into the night – as well as for all the comments. Here’s a summary of the evening’s events:

Westminster came alive on Tuesday evening with speculation the prime minister will face a confidence vote as a senior Tory publicly backed such a move. Owen Paterson, a former cabinet minister, wrote a letter to the chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers, Graham Brady, saying he no longer supported Theresa May. The Conservative party’s rules require 48 MPs to do so in order to force a vote. Various sources in Westminster made differing claims on whether or not that number had been reached on Tuesday evening.

May returned from the continent to face her chief whip and the chairman of the party in No 10. Julian Smith and Brandon Lewis both left Downing Street late in the evening without saying anything but their very presence there fuelled the speculation about May’s position. There were conflicting reports over whether or not Brady had asked to speak to the prime minister after PMQs on Wednesday but friends of his refused to deny that he would do so.

May’s leadership under threat as Tory MPs mobilise against her

Earlier this evening, the Sinn Féin president, Mary-LouMcDonald, told Theresa May the backstop was “non-negotiable” and demanded an Irish unity referendum in the case of a no-deal Brexit.

She and Pearse Doherty, the Sinn Féin Irish parliament member, spoke to May for about 20 minutes on Tuesday. McDonald said:

We raised concerns that we are facing into a no deal or a crash Brexit which would be a disaster for Ireland. And we reminded Mrs May that, in those circumstances, a unity referendum must be called as a matter of urgency.

As I told the taoiseach today, Irish unity is the ultimate contingency to protect our interests in the event of a crash Brexit.

As if to illustrate the tenuous nature of the reports for anyone getting carried away, City AM’s Owen Bennett contradicts earlier claims that Brady intends to speak to the prime minister after PMQs tomorrow:

Owen Bennett (@owenjbennett)

Very well placed source tells me Sir Graham Brady is NOT planning to see the PM after PMQs tomorrow

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg previously said she had been told he did intend to do so:

Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak)

Hearing that SirGraham Brady has asked to see the PM after #pmqs tmrw, and multiple sources, including senior tories and a cabinet minister, telling us tonight they believe the threshold of 48 letters has been reached - v unlikely to be any confirmation until tomorrow

Damien Green, a close ally of Theresa May and former first secretary of state, has told the BBC’s Newsnight programme that, if 48 letters have gone in, it will be seen by the public as “an act of monumental self-indulgence” on the part of Tory MPs.

People outside the Westminster bubble will be looking at this and thinking we’ve got a prime minister doing really difficult negotiations, at the sharp end of one of the most important decisions for 50 years. This is a really important matter for the country, not just the Conservative party, but for the country. To undermine the prime minister at this stage, seems to be, to be wholly wrong